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by Reem Shahwa

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movember

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Can't believe this is only my first entry in Movember, the month formerly known as November.

Movember may be a cultural phenomenon for men to grow out their moussies (formerly known as moustache - no, not really, i just made it up) but for yours truly, it's literally the month to 'move-it, move-it...'.

I've been moving it up the past week from Sabah to Manila - a separate post for later, just to provoke those with obsessive chronological compulsive disorders - to Bangkok and then Jakarta. Which explains the lack of updates.

In aviation terms, the past week for me looks something like this: KUL-SDK-KUL-CRK-KUL-DMK-KUL-CGK-KUL.

Have I lost you yet? Those letters/initials put together to confuse you are simply standard world airport codes.

In an attempt to achieve a sense of purpose while getting out of my 10km rut, plus the opportunity to run in unfamiliar terrains - I jumped at the opportunity when our culture team (Human Resources) invited me to run for MAA (Malaysia AirAsia) in Bangkok.

Thai AirAsia recently moved (there goes that word again) its operations and services from Suvarnabhumi (BKK) to Don Mueang (DMK) in its efforts to maintain operations at a low cost. So what's the best way to raise awareness for this big move? An even BIGGER fun rally!

No other airline, in fact no other company that ever came to be does fun the way AirAsia does. NONE.

The rally route began at Suvarnabhumi Airport and progressed along the Airport Rail Link (Suvarnabhumi to Phaya Thai), connected to the BTS Skytrain (Phaya Thai to Mo Chit), included an RC hunt game at the Chatuchak Train Yard (I almost threw in the towel here. The glittering markets had my name all over them) and ended with a 12.9km (we did our own calculations and our pacers all recorded 14.9km) marathon from the yard, down Vipavadee Road to the finish line at AirAsia’s counter at Terminal 1 of Don Mueang Airport.

In Thailand, this is how you dress when running:

We obviously didn't get the memo. 'We' the reps from Indonesia AirAsia & MAA

While about 1000 odd runners were warming up before the race, we thought it'd be better to conserve our energies and play fashion police instead.

'She's running in 4-inch heels? Crazy!'

'Did she eat make-up for breakfast or what?? It's starting to grow on her face'

'Is she even a she?'

Soon after the race took off, we were full of optimism happily snapping photos away

After about the 3rd km, my photos started looking like this, having lost all equilibrium: